The present invention relates to high voltage power supplies. More specifically, the present invention relates to high voltage power supplies utilizing a voltage multiplication technique to create a voltage potential of sufficient magnitude for use in an electron accelerator.
Very high potential power supplies in the range of one to two megavolts (MV) are required for a number of applications including high power electron beam accelerators. Beam accelerators in the range of 50-500 kilowatts often require acceleration energies of up to 5 megavolts. Often a large number of power supplies are needed in order to achieve the necessary power to produce the desired electron beam energy. Utilization of a large number of power supplies to achieve such power is often unmanageable and uneconomical.
Presently available accelerators, therefore, do not meet the requirements of high beam power, high beam energy and economical costs. Some commercial power supplies utilized to achieve high voltage energy utilize solid dielectric insulation. Some of these power supplies are able to achieve the necessary high voltage with a few stages but are still not capable of producing the necessary power at an economical cost.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,708,740 and 3,393,114 to Pierson teach transformers which are designed to generate large DC potentials. U.S. Pat. No. 2,251,373 to Olsson teaches a high tension transformer having a construction similar to that of the pierson transformers. A number of serially connected coils are positioned proximate a single low voltage coil, thereby magnetically flux coupling the coils to increase the transformer load capacity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,674 to Hamano teaches the combination of three transformers to form a single high voltage transformer, designed to provide a high DC voltage output. U.S. Pat. No. 1,907,633 to Westermann also teaches a means for the cascade connection of a series of transformers.
A commonly utilized high voltage source is the Cockcroft-Walton type power supply. The Cockcroft-Walton supply utilizes series fed electrostatic coupled voltage multipliers which require large capacitance for coupling between stages. Alternatively, an Insulated Core Transformer (ICT) power supply can be utilized to provide the necessary high power requirements. However, ICTs require extremely large magnetic cores to reduce the effects of leakage flux between stages.